


Mercy

by DxC95



Series: Hurts [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Chara has no set gender, De-Aged, Frisk has no set gender, Head Injury, Kinda, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Spoilers - Undertale Genocide Route, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 14:29:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29685396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DxC95/pseuds/DxC95
Summary: When she opened her eyes, Ginny knew it must have been some sort of dream. Why else would she be wandering the Underground that Frisk told her about? And somehow at their age? Or why the monsters she had become acquainted with didn't recognize her? But one more question remains, waiting to be answered: who is the red-eyed child possessing her?
Series: Hurts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1930387
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in the middle of "Silver Lining", beginning after Ginny runs out of Toriel's house, and Sans goes off to find her. The summary hints at what the plot is, but I'll wait until a couple of chapters to explain it. Aside from Ginny, and any other unrecognizable characters, I don't own Undertale; it all belongs to Toby Fox.
> 
> Also, I might be mistaken about how a concussion feels, but I just imagined how it felt to hit your head, but worse.

She ran.

Ginny had no destination in mind, nor was she in the best mindset to decide.

All she could do was run, as tears continued to fall down her face.

She ran through the gate that lead into the monster neighborhood, and down the street. She barely noticed the people she accidentally pushed aside, or the angry shouts she left behind.

She simply ran.

But when running, one had to stop at some point. And when she did, she collapsed on her knees, panting heavily; after almost every inhale, her lungs belted out a sob. Tears were still coming out, wetting her cheeks with hot, salty drips. Her nose was becoming stuffy, causing her to sniff, and her throat was beginning to ache.

When she looked up, she realized she was on the bridge, the same one she had fallen off of when Papyrus startled her. It seemed no matter where she went, walking or running, she always seemed to end up back on or under the bridge. It was expected, as it was her safe place, but it was still fascinating that her feet knew where to take her when her mind was otherwise occupied.

And occupied, it still was. Her angry shouts echoed in her ears, sounding more and more evil as they passed her by. _"...I don't need your help! I don't need anyone's help!... What do you know about human children?... How could you possibly know what's good for them?"_

Her shoulders shook as another sob made its way through her body. Her heart was heavy with guilt, realizing how horrible she had sounded. But a voice still whispered that she had a right to question them; they never took care of a human child before Frisk. All of the other children that fell had died. Probably by their hands, paws, or what other appendages monsters had.

Even if Toriel had cared for one human child, Ginny was still Frisk's sister. She knew everything about them, what foods they liked or disliked, what symptoms they had when getting sick, and what lullabies to hum when they couldn't fall asleep. They were blood. They were all she had, and she them. She deserved them, more than the monsters did.

But even if she was confident in the monsters caring for Frisk, it didn't mean she wanted to lose them. She had heard it, time and time again, from the orphanage: no one wanted to adopt an adult, no matter how cute their little sibling was. It was the basic reasoning for children, who reached the age of eighteen, to be expelled from the orphanage. It didn't seem to matter if they weren't prepared for the outside world. They were simply told they should have thought about and planned it when they knew their eighteenth birthday was coming, especially when they had seen it happen to other children.

And now that she had insulted them so, they would never want to take her in. They probably never had that idea in their heads in the first place; she was too old, and too human.

She leaned her head back as it began to rain, letting the drops fall on her face. They were cold, and felt sinfully good on her heated skin. It helped clear her mind and quash the ugly head of greed that was trying its best to rise. The rain always helped her think, especially when it was at the end of a hard day, and her thoughts were hard to untangle.

They were interrupted when she heard footsteps approaching from behind, causing little splashes in the tiny puddles beginning to form. She stood to her own feet, grimacing at her sore knees, and wiped off her face. She ignored the smeared dirt on her hands, and instead turned around just enough to see who was behind her.

It was a trio of girls she internally called the Mean M Girls, as all three of them had names beginning with that letter, and were less than pleasant. The leader was Muffy, a tall pale girl with shoulder-length brown hair. Another was a tanned girl with longer, black hair called Megan, who often had the same thoughts as their leader. The final girl was more pale than Muffy, and had short red hair; her name was Madison, and she could be considered the least-nasty of the girls.

The Mean M Girls stopped in the middle of the bridge, eyeing Ginny like she was a nasty bug in need of squishing. Muffy sneered at her, curling her nose as much as it would go, "You're blocking our way."

Not being in the mood for arguing back, Ginny stepped to the side until her hip hit the railing of the bridge. "Not good enough," Muffy tsked, shaking her head like Ginny was a troubled toddler.

"Yeah, how's about you get _off_ the bridge?" Megan agreed. "So we can get by without having to smell you." She wrinkled her nose and waved the air in front of her face for good measure.

Even though she knew she was right, Ginny still flinched at the harsh words and gestures. She admitted, it was partially her fault for not investing in soap and shampoo more. But anything that didn't go into food, medicine, or extreme emergency-type miscellanea went to someday being able to afford all the luxuries needed to adopt Frisk; not to mention she didn't have good access to running water. The last time she tried to bathe in the river, an officer told her off for polluting the water. And it was hard to gather enough rain in a bucket for even a short wash.

When Madison didn't add anything, Megan elbowed her harshly in the ribs, causing her to grunt in pain. She flinched when Muffy glared at her, and stammered, "Y-you... I... i-it _is_ a little ripe, but-"

"-a little?" Muffy snorted. "She smells worse than a pig farm! I'd be surprised if she didn't _live_ at one."

"And she _looks_ like she lives on one," Megan added. "Her hair's ugly, her clothes are ugly, her skin's ugly; everything about her is just plug. Ugly!"

Normally, Ginny would have ignored them until they got bored of her lack-of-response. But she was already in a bad mood. "Yeah? You guys are just as ugly."

All three of them whipped their heads towards her, wide-eyed. As their faces morphed into angry glares, they advanced upon her, forcing her to back up against the railing. "You better take that back," Muffy warned her, pointing a finger at her.

"No," she shook her head, even as she had to lean her upper back over the railing to avoid her finger.

"Take it back!" Megan yelled, stamping her foot. "You filthy bitch!"

"No!" Ginny refused again. "You _are_ ugly! You guys might be pretty on the outside, but your personalities are ugly. Hell, if everyone looked like how they thought and acted, you'd be as ugly as pig shit."

There wasn't even a pause before someone reacted. Muffy raised her hands up and pushed Ginny in the chest, still glaring as if she had insulted her mother. For a split second, she saw Megan's eyes widen a touch, and Madison open her mouth to shout something, though she couldn't hear what it was.

All she could hear was her own scream as she fell. It came out purely by instinct, by getting startled at being shoved off of the bridge. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as she neared the ground.

But in reality, it was only a few seconds before she hit it.

She felt her head bounce off of the concrete, and heard the crack, just before pain seemed to explode from the back of her skull. Her scream was cut off when she gasped, but nothing more came out. The wind had been knocked out of her as the rest of her body crumpled to the ground, and the pain kept her from crying out. She couldn't even curl up to grasp the back of her head. It probably wouldn't have done any good. It seemed like nothing in the world could stop the pain.

She couldn't hear anything, smell anything, or even see anything. She couldn't even feel the rain still pouring down on her; all she felt was pain. It felt like the worst headache, combined with every bump on the head she ever received, multiplied by the hundreds, if not thousands. It made her feel sick, even if there wasn't much for her stomach to expel.

But she did begin to regain her senses, bit by bit. She felt her body being lifted up by bony arms, wrapped in a thick parka. The back of her head was still aching, and the spot where it hurt the worst felt sharp and cold. It was almost like her skin had gotten wet, and a fan was blowing cold air on it.

Whoever was holding her began to run. She felt them hold her firmly, probably trying not to jostle her around too much. But she still hurt, even in places other than her head. The back of her skull was still so painful, it was almost baffling that the rest of her body was hurting.

She was finally able to open her eyes. Though her vision was blurry, and she had to blink rain and tears away, she eventually was able to make out who was carrying her. "S-Sans?" she whimpered. She reached one hand up to clutch his jacket. It was made of some rough material, though it was still flexible. "It h-hurts..."

"yeah, i know," he whispered, glancing down at her. Though he was still grinning, it looked forced, and his eyes were worried. "don't worry, though. you'll be fine. you just gotta stay awake for me."

His voice was beginning to fade into deep sounds, like trying to listen to someone while underwater. And her vision was filling with black splotches. She vaguely remembered learning about concussions, and how the victim had to stay awake. Why? She couldn't remember. She could barely focus as it was, even on Sans's deep voice. She barely realized her grip on his jacket was loosening.

Through the black splotches, and the fogginess of her vision, she saw him look down at her again. She barely heard him call out her name, urging her to try to stay awake. Try as she might to hang onto his voice, it was too much. She could feel her body urging her to go to sleep. It lied to her, telling her she wasn't hurt, but extremely tired. That she needed to go to sleep.

As her head fell back, sending one last shock wave of pain when it hit his arm, and her own arm hung limp, her vision fell to black. And gradually, his voice and her pain faded away as well.

Everything faded away into silence and darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some dialogue and events will be worded differently to accommodate the game-to-"book" shift. I'm sure there are writers who can perfectly put the game's elements into words, but I'm doing this my way. In any case, it keeps things from being TOO copy-paste, and it gives me a challenge to put things into words my way, while still making it feel Undertale-y.

Ginny's eyes popped open, and blinked twice. She was staring up at the ceiling of a rocky cave. If she squinted, and looked hard, she could see a tiny circle of light. It looked very, very far away, rather than simply small in size.

It took her a few more seconds to realize she was on her back. She was laying in what seemed to be soft, sweet-smelling plants.

She sat up and looked around. She was indeed in a cave, with only a tiny bit of light from the hole in the ceiling. She was currently sitting in a large bed of golden flowers. Somehow, they looked like they had been planted deliberately in a rounded shape, rather than growing naturally. They looked so familiar, but she just couldn't place them.

It took her several more seconds to realize something else wasn't right. She felt smaller than usual. And when she looked down at herself, she realized why.

Instead of being twenty-three years old, she appeared six years old; the age Frisk was when they had gone missing. Her hair was straight and shoulder-length, and her skin was clean. She wore an orange t-shirt, blue overalls with purple stripes on the legs, and black slip-on shoes.

Ginny sat frozen, feeling very strange. What was going on? What happened? This wasn't right! She was a twenty-three year-old woman, dressed in shabby clothes, with dirty skin and tangled hair. The last thing she remembered was pain; a massive, sickening amount of pain. And falling... was that before the pain? Or after? Was someone carrying her somewhere? Or did they leave her? She couldn't quite remember.

When she pinched her arm, slapped her cheeks, and pulled her hair, she didn't wake up. There had been times when she was dreaming where doing those things didn't wake her, so, it wasn't too unusual. But she was sure she wasn't supposed to be six years old. Something screwy was going on, and she wasn't sure if she liked it.

For the time being, she knew she couldn't sit in the golden flowers forever; or at least, she didn't want to. She pushed herself to her feet. It took a few seconds for her to stop wobbling, not being used to such short legs again. Once she was relatively steady, she took a step forward, and nearly fell face-first into the flowers. She managed to catch herself, and stood up again. She took another step forward, and was able to catch herself on her hands again. She had to remind herself that she couldn't take such huge steps anymore.

After a few steps out of the bed of flowers, she was walking; still a little shaky, but walking.

There was some grass bordering the flowers, but the ground beyond that was rock. Somehow, even after leaving the small patch of light, she was still able to see in front of her. At least enough to not bump into walls or stalagmites.

It was several yards before she came upon a large archway. It looked old, like it had been carved into the rock decades prior. There was a pillar on each side of the hole in the wall, and an arch connecting them on top. In the middle of the arch was some sort of symbol, but it was too tall for her to make out, no matter how tall she stood on her tip-toes. "I miss being tall," she sighed. Even her voice was high-pitched and young, just like when she was a child.

Tired of trying to decipher the symbol, she walked through the archway into another cave. This one wasn't as large, and had another patch of grass lit up by a tiny hole in the ceiling. Rather than a patch of golden flowers, however, there was only one in the sunlight. There was a face in the center of the flower; two black beady eyes, and a smile with no lips. But that wasn't strange to her.

What was strange was that she knew this flower. But the last time she saw him, he was in a pot up on the surface, at Asgore's house.

"Howdy!" he exclaimed, still in his squeaky voice. "I'm Flowey. Flowey the flower!"

 _What? Doesn't he recognize me?_ But she didn't say anything. Instead, she listened as he continued speaking.

"Hmmm... you're new to the Underground, aren'tcha?" he asked, tilting his head. He straightened up and remarked, "Golly, you must be so confused. Someone ought to teach you how things work around here! I guess little old me will have to do." He shrugged—somehow. "I know! You wanna play a game?"

"I... I guess so," she answered, still utterly confused, especially at seemingly the change in subject.

"All righty, here we go! This is a game I came up with. It's called 'Catch the Friendliness Pellets'!"

 _Friendliness pellets? What?_ "Um... how do you play it?"

"Why, you catch the friendliness pellets, silly!" Flowey winked and stuck a pink tongue out. "And here they are!" Several seed-looking objects flew up from behind him, and hovered above his head. They were all white, and she counted five. They were quickly spinning in place, making her nervous. "Go ahead, move around! Catch as many as you can!"

They began to fly towards her, albeit slowly. They didn't move in a straight line, but rather like seeds floating in the wind.

Ginny didn't trust Flowey one bit, and just knew he was trying to trick her, somehow. Rather than catching the 'friendliness pellets', she ducked as they flew towards her. When she looked over her shoulder, they were still floating away as they disappeared into the darkness.

When she looked back at Flowey, he was raising one eyebrow and smirking slyly. "Hey, buddy, you missed them."

She shrugged, not responding in any way. She didn't know what to say. "Let's try again, okay?" he continued, summoning five more pellets. These still spun, but came at her a little faster.

She ducked again, lower this time, and ended up falling on her knees. When she looked up, Flowey was now scowling, looking like a toddler who was told it was time to stop playing. "Is this a joke? Are you braindead?" he shouted. "Run! Into! The! Bullets-I mean, friendliness pellets!"

Ginny's eyes widened as he smiled innocently, as if he hadn't just called his 'friendliness pellets' by a far more lethal name. She looked up just in time to see them flying at her, faster than ever. She rolled over, managing to dodge them before they even touched her.

When she sat up, Flowey's face was different. It didn't look any similar to what it was before; it was as if it was replaced with a different face entirely. His eyes were slanted down and completely black, with white dots in the middle. And his mouth was wide, with a few sharp teeth in the middle, as if a child had drawn them. The corners were barely turned up, creating an eerie glimpse of a smile.

It sent a chill down her spine, and she felt frozen in place. There was just something about how different that face of his was compared to before. And it wasn't as if his face had magically changed before. At the very least, she had the excuse of not taking him seriously, since he was merely stuck in a pot.

Now though, he was free to do whatever he wanted. And he could hurt her if she wanted. Not to mention she, somehow, now had the tiny body of a six-year-old. It made it all far more frightening.

"You know what's going on here, don't you?" he asked slowly. His voice was shaky, as if he was holding back rage. "You just wanted to see me suffer."

"H-huh?" she whimpered, finally able to stand to her feet.

But before she could run, she was surrounded by dozens more 'friendliness pellets'. It was merely a line of them around her, like a giant floating necklace. But they were individually spinning, and spinning around her as a group. She couldn't duck out of the way, and she wasn't confident in jumping over them. And she still had no clue what sort of damage they could do to her if they ran into her. Or even touch her.

"Die!" Flowey hissed.

Then, as the circle of pellets slowly began to close on her, his face changed again. This one was more familiar, though it didn't comfort her in the least. He had a wide grin full of sharp teeth, and glaring pure-black eyes. He was maniacally laughing; somehow, his high-pitched voice made it far more frightening than if it was deep. Perhaps it was also because it was coming from this tiny flower.

She fell back on her bottom, and huddled up, shaking in fright. The pellets were coming closer to her. She shut her eyes tight, and pressed her face against her knees. His laugh continued to echo in her ears.

"Huh?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Initially, this chapter was shorter, but the next chapter would have been really long, so I shifted things over. That being said, some chapters are going to be long AF; one might be around 2000K words, and then the next one is going to be 3500K+ words XD

When Ginny looked up, the 'friendliness pellets' had caught fire inches away from her form, and fell away to ash. Flowey looked both incredible confused and irritated, making for an admittedly funny face.

Another fireball flew out from the darkness, headed straight for the flower. It hit him in the side, knocking him to the ground as he squealed in pain. He shook himself, glared in the direction the fireball came from, and plunged down into the ground. Where he once was, there was now a tiny mound of dirt, like an anthill without the hole or ants.

"Um... what just happened?" Ginny muttered, relaxing her legs so she was sitting on the ground, instead of tightly huddled into a ball.

Out of the shadows came a tall form; her face resembled a goat, yet she had the paws of a lion. She wore a purple dress with long white sleeves, and had a white and blue symbol on the chest.

Ginny's eyes widened, realizing it was Toriel.

"What a terrible creature," she sighed, "torturing such a poor, innocent youth." She shook her head and clicked her tongue. She looked down at Ginny and smiled warmly. "Ah, do not be afraid, my child." She held out a paw.

Ginny slowly placed her hand in Toriel's paw. Her fur was soft, and her entire paw felt warm as it wrapped around her tiny hand. She could feel just the tip of blunt claws at the end of her fingers. "I am Toriel, the caretaker of the Ruins," she continued as she carefully lifted Ginny to her feet. "I pass through here every day to see if anyone has fallen down."

_Fallen down? Well... I suppose if Frisk fell down here and survived, it stands to reason that others might have before. Did I fall though? I can't remember._

"You are the first human to come here in a long time. Come!" Toriel said cheerfully. "I will guide you through the catacombs. This way."

 _Wait a minute, aren't catacombs underground cemeteries? Frisk never said anything about that!_ But she couldn't tear her hand from Toriel's paw, whether it was because she didn't have the strength, or she just didn't want to at all. She let her guide her through another archway.

The archway lead into a bigger cave, though it didn't necessarily look like a cave. The ground was purple-tinted rock, with red leaves scattered about. And the walls looked like a mix of rocks and bricks, all laid about like a brick wall, and were different shades of purple. The ceiling had stalactites, and what looked like glowing crystals, bathing the room in light. At the end of the room was a curved stairway, similar to the front of Toriel's house on the surface. Between the two staircases was a pile of red leaves. The back wall had two windows, a simple doorway, and vines between them all. Above the door was a sign, though she couldn't see it well enough to read.

Toriel took her up the stairs and through the door into a smaller room. This one had six buttons on the ground, in a staggering pattern. They looked to be one square foot in size each, and were raised up, waiting to be pressed. The double-doors in the back were closed, and had the symbol from Toriel's dress on it. On the left-hand side of the door was a sign; on the right-hand side was a yellow switch, with the bottom half pushed outward. There was a pale pathway leading to the door and beyond.

"Welcome to your new home, innocent one," Toriel smiled. She let Ginny's hand go, and gestured for her to stay where she was. "Allow me to educate you in the operation of the Ruins."

"Okay," she nodded, folding her hands behind her back.

Returning her nod, Toriel walked towards the switches, and pressed the four furthest away in a square formation, leaving the middle two alone; bottom left, bottom right, top right, and then top left. Then, she pushed the switch. The top part of the switch jutted out, and the doors swung open with a deep thud. "The Ruins are full of puzzles. Ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. One must solve them to move from room to room."

Ginny nodded as she followed her through the door. She tugged on her skirt and asked what the sign by the door said. Toriel answered, "'Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones. Both walk not the middle road'."

The next room was far longer than the previous. The pathway ran over two small bridges, which in turn were each stretched over a tiny river flowing from grate to grate. There was a sign on the wall opposite to the doorway, and one standing by the path. She could see it said, 'If you're reading this, you can read'. This gave her a chuckle.

"To make progress here, you will need to trigger several switches," Toriel said as she guided Ginny across the tiny bridge. "But do not worry. I have labeled the ones that you need to flip."

Ginny nodded as she looked along the walls. She giggled when she saw the first switch was indeed labeled; with several arrows pointing to it, drawn with what looked like a yellow marker. To the left of the switch was writing, asking, 'Please press this switch'. She reached up and pressed it with both hands and a grunt.

Toriel smiled as they crossed the next bridge. This time, there were two switches on the wall, with the left-side one marked with the same vigor as the one before, including the writing asking just as politely to press the switch as well. She did just as before; this time, another set of doors swung open with a thud.

"Splendid!" Toriel praised her, clapping her paws. "I am proud of you, little one. Let us move to the next room."

Said next room was another small one, though there were no buttons, switches, or closed doors this time. Just a lone training dummy, sitting off to the side. But it didn't look like it was sitting randomly; more like it had sat down with purpose.

"As a human living in the Underground, monsters may attack you. You will need to be prepared for this situation."

Ginny's eyes widened. She was sure she remembered Frisk mentioning they had gotten into fights with the monsters, but she always assumed they were exaggerating, or the 'fights' were petty arguments, like children in the schoolyard.

No doubt seeing her trepidation, Toriel smiled kindly, "However, worry not! The process is simple. Even if you find yourself in the middle of a fight with a monster, I find the best resolution is to strike up a friendly conversation. Stall for time, and I will come to resolve the conflict. For now, practice by talking to the dummy." She laid a paw on Ginny's back and nudged her towards the dummy.

She stood before it, fiddling with her fingers. It looked harmless enough. It had a round, squat body, and a long head that reminded her of a horse. It was propped up by a stand, which no doubt ran through its entire body.

She glanced to Toriel, who nodded encouragingly. She inched towards the dummy until she was standing right in front of it. "Um... hello," she greeted, waving at it. She smiled uneasily, feeling a little silly for talking to an inanimate object in front of someone.

It didn't seem much for conversation, but Toriel seemed happy anyway. "Ah, very good," she smiled, clapping her paws again. "You are _very_ good."

Ginny smiled shyly, feeling her cheeks heat up. It had been so long since a motherly figure had praised her for being good; it almost felt like her mother was still alive, praising her for finishing a chore. The thought of her mother made her heart heavy, but she tried not to let it show.

In the next room, the pathway was curved around in a particular pattern, for no immediate reason. As Toriel led her down the room, Ginny tried to decipher what the path's pattern meant. Maybe it was code for something?

They passed through a narrow hallway, with a sign on one wall; she was able to quickly read something about rooms and blueprints before Toriel took her hand and lead her past it.

They came upon a pool of water. It had a tiny dock on their side, which lead to a platform full of upward-facing spikes. "This is the puzzle," Toriel said, "but... Here, keep hold of my paw for a moment."

Once Ginny nodded, Toriel lead her into the spikes. When her foot went to take a step, the spikes underneath fell flat. She continued on, curving to the left, and then the right. They were halfway through when she realized the path they were taking was the same as the path at the beginning of the room. It must have been what the sign was talking about as well.

"Puzzles seem a little too dangerous for now," Toriel remarked once they were on the opposite tiny dock. She let Ginny's hand go and continued on.

 _I dunno, they seemed pretty easy to me,_ she shrugged. Regardless, she followed Toriel into the next room.

Said room seemed to go on for ages, like a stretching hallway in a haunted house. "You have done excellently thus far, my child," Toriel smiled, turning to completely face Ginny. "However, I have a difficult request to ask of you." Her face turned to one of concern.

"Um... okay," Ginny nodded.

Toriel was silent for a few seconds, still looking concerned, before she finally said, "I would like you to walk to the end of the room by yourself. Forgive me for this."

Ginny blinked in surprise as Toriel spun around and took off. By the time her words caught up to her, she was gone. "... What? That's it? Walk down the room?" Her trepidation made her wonder if there was a reason for it. Were there really monsters who would attack her? She wouldn't leave her alone if that was the case... would she? Was this what Frisk went through when they fell to the Underground?

After several seconds of pondering, she began walking. She got tired of looking at the end of the room, as it seemed to never get any closer, and instead looked along the walls. There were more vines trailing down from the ceiling, and cracks of various sizes where the walls met the floor. She could see eyes peering out as she walked, but they just watched her as she passed by; she thought she could hear whispers.

Something else made a chill go up her back. But when she turned around to look, there was nothing there. As she had been following Toriel through the various puzzles, she thought she could sense something, or someone, following them. But she never looked, or brought it up, feeling that Toriel would have sensed them and told them to stop scaring her, if that were the case.

But the feeling of being watched was still there. It was stronger, in fact. She could feel eyes running up and down her back; it wasn't in a gross, pervert way, like how people would look at her on the surface. It was more like they were observing her. But she still didn't like it. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, her heart race, and something else in her chest feel... she couldn't quite think of a way to describe it. It almost felt like a mouse shaking inside of her ribcage, ready to either run or fight.

"Greetings, my child."

Ginny jumped back with a frightened scream. Toriel was standing before her, looking startled as well. "Oh, I'm sorry! But do not worry, I did not leave you. I was merely behind this pillar the whole time." She gestured to an off-white pillar standing randomly near the wall.

"Thank you for trusting me." Her wide smile turned to a more serious face. "However, there was an important reason for this exercise."

"What was it?" Ginny asked, now calmed down from her scare.

"To test your independence," she answered. "For you see, I must attend to some business, and you must stay alone for a while. So, please remain here. It's dangerous to explore by yourself."

"I'm not afraid! I've been on my own fo-lot's of times!"

Toriel smiled again, though she could see sorrow in her eyes. "Regardless, I need to leave you for some time." Her ears perked up. "I have an idea. I will give you a cell phone. If you have a need for anything, just call." She handed her an old flip-phone. The buttons were nearly worn out, and there were little claw marks along the body. But when Ginny flipped it open, it lit up.

Toriel stroked her hair, brushing a stray lock out of her eyes. "Be good, all right?"

At Ginny's nod, she turned and left the room.

She flipped the phone back closed and stuffed it in one of the pockets on her overalls, which was situated over her stomach. She nearly tore her hand out of the pocket when she felt something else in there. But all she pulled out was a stick. It looked like an ordinary stick; it was thin enough for her fingers to wrap all the way around, and had one tiny branch partway up.

As she fiddled with it, she pondered on her situation. The last thing she remembered was falling, and something exploding in pain. She just couldn't remember what hurt. Or why she was falling. And someone... someone was definitely carrying her. But she couldn't remember who, or what they said to her. She couldn't even remember if they were the one who hurt her.

There were more pressing things to ponder anyway: why was she here? In the Underground? And why was she suddenly six years old? Was she thrust into the past? Was this an alternate reality? What was her purpose here?

Being alone with only her thoughts began to get both boring and nerve-wracking. So, she decided to continue on into the next room. Toriel surely didn't expect her to stand there, waiting for her? Maybe she could explore on and catch up to her. Or even double-back.

Another shiver ran up her back. Whatever invisible entity was following her before, it still was. She clutched the stick in her hand, looking around carefully for anything unusual. What that would be, she wasn't sure. She didn't know what the other monsters of the Ruins looked like, or if they were safe. Frisk said they were all kind once you got to know them, but...

Behind her, she heard slapping feet on the ground. And there was another shadow next to her own.

The next events seemed to happen in slow motion. She looked over her shoulder, and what looked like a large, white frog had leaped at her. She gasped in surprise, and her eyes widened for the briefest of moments. Then, she clenched them shut, and swung out blindly with her hand, still holding the stick.

The stick caught on something for a moment. There was a loud squeak, and a strange sound. When she finally cracked open her eyes, there was nothing. Just a pile of dust on the ground. She could have sworn it wasn't there before, but didn't worry too much about it. Whatever had jumped at her must have been scared away, since it was now gone.

Suddenly, the whole room felt cold. She could see her breath for a second before there was a hot flash; it felt like a wave of heat went through the room. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of yellow and green swiftly come at her.

Something threw itself straight at her back. She managed to stand on her feet. Her whole body began to seize up. Her eyes shut tightly, and she finally fell to her knees, She couldn't stop shaking. It felt like her whole body was caught in a cramp. She couldn't cry out for help, or scream. She wanted Toriel to come back and help her; somebody, anybody.

_But nobody came._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as you can see, this is going to follow the infamous Genocide Route timeline. I'll try to not make everything so copy-paste, as I said, though. And as such, if I didn't mention this before, this was why I chose the name 'Ginny' for my character; it's the same naming theme as 'Frisk' for the Pacifist Route, which my Frisk did.
> 
> Also, there's bound to be arguments and statements about what Chara was like, and whether they're an innocent, misunderstood kid, or a cruel, abusive monster. The fact of the matter is the way the game is written and interpreted, there are all kinds of ways Chara can be read. But when it comes to written stories, unless one has clever enough writing, they have to be written to be one thing or another. If you're not inevitably pleased with the way I write them, you can either stop reading, or continue on with curiosity.


End file.
